Schedule

In addition to the sessions offered below, a Happiness Bar will be available throughout the day at the second floor lounge, staffed by some of the most capable and friendly WordPress developers in the country – ready to help you with your WordPress issue at no cost. Don’t be afraid to stop by and ask for help or show off your latest project.

After Party: The Varsity Club on Ohio State’s campus (in the basement). We’ll provide each attendee with 2 drink tickets, after that drinks are on your own from the cash bar. You can also order food and appetizers if you’d like.

Using the REST API with WordPress.com and Jetpack

In the past, to manage and control your WordPress data from other apps, you would have to use insecure username/password authentication and sometimes difficult to use XML-RPC APIs. Now you can use a JSON based REST API and authenticate using OAuth2. Supported by all WordPress.com and Jetpack (that means self-hosted!) powered blogs. This talk will talk about basics of the API (what it offers, what the future will hold, etc), how to get started (registering an application, getting a client id/secret, etc), and provide some examples of what you can do. Included is a Q&A & discussion about the future of the APIs.

The Money Is In The Details: How I Raised $27,780 in 3 Months Using WordPress

Presented by Matthew Russo.

WordPress is an incredibly flexible tool that allows us to quickly build and launch websites – both fun and profit. Unfortunately, most sites never realize their full potential because they lack a few critical details. In this session, we will discuss how to use WordPress to tell better stories that lead visitors to action. We will also deconstruct successful sites and look at external systems that interface with WordPress to help us maximize our digital presence.

Argo’s funding ended after two years (most of the blogs live on), but what lived on technologically speaking were those tools — themes, plugins, and lessons. The code lives on GitHub, but as many open source projects have discovered, the fact that code exists in the open is no guarantee that it will ever be used.

Enter Largo, which (loosely) stands for “longform Argo.” Largo was begun by INN in hopes of repurposing what Argo built for iterative blogging for a more traditional news site. Adam Schweigert, INN’s director of technology, was the lead developer on the Largo Project — or as he put it, the man in charge of asking the question, “What should nonprofit investigative news organizations look like on the web?” Most of INN’s members are small shops without much in the way of either tech capacity or excess budget.

Google Analytics with WordPress

Presented by Brad Griffith.

Fewer than 30% of businesses worldwide are collecting analytics (usage) data on their websites! Are you in that unfortunate minority that doesn’t know how visitors are really interacting with your website? Aid your business or brand by attending this session on using Google Analytics to learn:

– How to set up a Google Analytics account so that it provides the best possible information on site traffic
– What to measure and why (Key Performance Indicators)
– How to cross-reference data so that it can be optimized
– Which reports provide the most valuable information
– What data and insights clients or bosses need to see

Integrating Google Analytics with WordPress is simple, but there are some important considerations when setting up themes and other plugins.

When you’re running a small business — and strapped with limits in time, money and human resources — your marketing success often hinges on your ability to get more utility out of fewer assets than your big business competitors. But there’s a silver lining to that grim forecast: Your WordPress website combined with a little effort and few third party tools and services can make you a marketing machine. An SEO ninja. An email Jedi. A lion of lead generation. In this session, presenter Erik Wolf will show you how to leverage WordPress for optimal marketing efficiencies and automation without breaking your budget. With 90 minutes of time every week and a total budget of less than $150 per month, you can get all your online marketing done easily and this talk will show you exactly how.

5 W’s of Hookin’

Presented by Nowell VanHoesen.

The Who, What, Where, When, and Why of using WordPress Hooks. We will explore examples of rolling our own to allow other developers to hook into our code.

Implementing the MVC Pattern in WordPress Plugins

Presented by Ian Dunn.

The Model-View-Controller design pattern is a popular technique to help structure applications in a way that is flexible, modular, and easy to maintain, but it hasn’t received much attention within the WordPress community. This session will introduce the basic principles of MVC and show some practical tips on how to implmenent them in a WordPress plugin.

Ask Otto Anything

Presented by Samuel “Otto” Wood.

I know pretty much everything there is to know about WordPress. What I don’t know is what other people want or even need to know. I’m continually looking for ideas in that respect. But the one thing I do know that people want is support. I’ve been doing support ever since I started off in the WordPress forums a little under 7 years ago. Answering random questions by random people is my own little hobby. So when I don’t have a topic-to-hand, I do random Q&A time. My “Ask Otto Anything” session is where I tell people who I am, what I do, and basically challenge them to stump me. I’ll answer any question, and if I don’t know the answer, then I’m more than happy to pull the core code up right there and then and show you the audience how to figure out the answer to the question. Sometimes this results in a user-audience, with general support questions or “what’s the best plugin for X” questions, but sometimes when the audience is dev-heavy then it can get into serious coding depth, which is always fun. In any case, by the end, I know what people asked, which is my real goal. The people who ask questions get answers. I get to know what people don’t know much about. Everybody wins.

Optimizing a WordPress Website for Podcasting

Presented by Angelo Mandato.

Podcaster spend a massive time creating content, only to fall far short in their website design omitting elements needed to build engaged audiences. You will leave this sessions understanding the elements you need on your website plus tips on iTunes SEO, HTML5 players, Syndication & State of the Podcast Sphere Statistics. We will cover tools as well like PowerPress that will help you build a better media site. Come to this session after Dustin Hartzler’s WordPress and Podcasting: How to easily add a podcast to your website for all you need to know to get started Podcasting on WordPress.

WordPress & Podcasting: How to easily add a podcast to your website

Presented by Dustin Hartzler.

The best way to grow an audience is to create content week after week to have people know, like and trust you. But what if you don’t like writing? Another option to connect with you audience is through a podcast and WordPress is a perfect platform to easily share your message, whether it be audio or written. During this session, I will share – the explosion of business that I’ve seen since I’ve started my podcast – the one plugin that I use for all of my podcasting needs – keys for consistency Plus I’ll share different podcasting equipment options where you can easily get started for less than $100! In this session you will learn: – Where to host your podcast files – How to publish your show to iTunes and other large podcast curators – The complete step-by-step workflow that I have used to publish over 100 podcast episodes about WordPress. Combine this session with Angelo Mandato’s OPTIMIZING A WORDPRESS WEBSITE FOR PODCASTING for all you need to know about Podcasting with WordPress!

Set your design mind free! Standardize on a framework.

Presented by Mary Baum.

When I standardized on the Genesis framework almost two years ago (from the date of the talk), I figured it was a good investment in a set of child themes I could endlessly redesign to match client branding. The CSS was well-organized, and I could indulge my first love, typography, and new themes would be coming out all the time. What I didn’t count on was that I would also learn the functions well enough to build child themes of my own, almost by osmosis. (And, I admit, some time learning about the code. But don’t ask me to pass a test!) Now I’m mixing and matching templates and functionality from one child theme to another, and from plugins, building sites with style I haven’t thought to achieve since I started with WP and with functionality I never thought I could achieve in any way at all. Granted, I chose Genesis – but I feel sure you can do the same thing with another framework, like Thesis, for example, or Headway. Because the more familiar you get with a body of code, as a designer stepping over the line into development, the easier it is to reincorporate that original visual sense you brought to the party into the newer skillset you’re developing. And as you probably realize from the rest of your design career, constraints are what set you free to come up with novel solutions. In the body, I’ll start with some sites based on Genesis child themes – show the stylesheets and how they’re the same from theme to theme. Then I’ll move into some more recent work that combines themes, like http://frontenactennis.com – and talk about adding mobile-first design instead of just sticking to the child themes’ responsive CSS. For instance: http://tennis-booker.com, a custom Genesis theme that’s also based on 320 and up. By July, I’ll also probably have some experience with SASS, which ought to make the 320andup styling process less tedious. I’ll also weave throughout the talk my preference for self-hosted @font-face typography over hosted services. I’m kind of a typography nut.

Tips and Tricks to Make Sure Your Website is Accessible

Presented by Angela Bergmann.

Are you using contrasting colors on your website?
Are you using audio cues?
Are you able to skip repetitive navigation elements?
Are items on your website understandable out of context?

In this workshop I will go over the WCAG Guidelines and simple changes every user and developer can implement to make their website accessible to those with disabilities. I will cover each of the WCAG Guidelines and what you can do within your website or through a plugin to assure your web content is accessible to those with disabilities.

InstaBRAND: The Rise of Visual Storytelling in a Content Marketing World

Presented by Christian Adams.

2012 was the year of Pinterest. 2013 will be a breakout year for visual content marketing and Instagram is leading the way. Why has it become so popular and why should marketers and brands care? Simply put it enhances the brand experience. Imagine if brands gave a more transparent view of their inner workings instead of just saying they did. Customers want a true and intimate personal tour from a brand. Some top brands are already giving viewers and raving fans backstage passes to everyday life. They take you with them into the office, behind the scenes at photo shoots, concerts, on the runway, and into interviews with your favorite celebrities. We call this opening the kimono. Donât get me wrong, this is not a new concept ala Flickr et al, but mobile platforms like Instagram are making it more accessible and consumable than ever.

WordPress and the Enterprise (Bureaucracy)

Presented by Matthew Bakaitis.

Any project or system tagged with the word ‘enterprise’ comes with baggage. Enterprises are bureaucracies filled with standards, process maps, rule books, and more. In many ways, WordPress represents ideals that oppose bureaucratic inertia…and given that, we can ask if WordPress is a good fit or an accident waiting to happen if it’s dropped into an ‘enterprise’? This talk aims to help developers, consultants and corporate staff understand key issues to consider at the start of a project in order to make sure the WordPress roll-out goes as smoothly as possible. The presentation is based upon my experience installing WordPress and other nimble software systems within corporate bureaucracies. Specifically, I will address these points: 1) Corporate users aren’t bloggers or hackers * Many understand the WordPress editor and ease of use, but couldn’t install it themselves * Some are IT-phobic, thanks to bureaucratic IT departments * They expect integration – single sign on, open files automatically, etc… 2) Enterprise IT departments often “like WordPress, but not in our datacenter” because: * Nobody gets fired for buying Microsoft * Who will support it? Who will we call? (Linux, PHP, etc etc) * Standards, policies, and more were not built with open source velocity in mind… 3) WordPress strengths can make it difficult to fully integrate into an enterprise IT environment. * WordPress has “stand-alone” roots; not built thinking “how will this fit into a corporate IT world?” * There isn’t a plug-in for everything; you may need to roll your own! End message: WordPress can be a solid part of an enterprise environment, but you need to set expectations, gather good requirements, and know where the big ‘enterprise’ challenges are lurking.

Custom Layouts Without Using Page Templates

Presented by Chip Bennett.

Often, Themes use custom page templates to add layout options for static pages; but custom page templates are actually intended to be used for custom content, rather than for custom layouts. And by using custom page templates to define custom layouts, custom layouts are limited to static pages. Single blog posts don’t feel the love. This session will show you how to use custom post meta data and the body_class filter to define custom layouts for both static pages and single blog posts. As a bonus, this session will show you how to use custom post metaboxes, rather than forcing users to deal with custom fields.

How to Make and Maintain a Successful Installation of WordPress Multisite

Presented by David Ensinger.

I’ll be giving a quick introduction to WordPress Multisite with a more detailed description of our install at The Ohio State University Libraries. Particular attention will be given to maintaining the install, curating plugins, and the development and use of a custom theme, which was developed from the Underscores theme.

Encouraging Community Development

(This topic was called Best Practices For Plugin Development – Pippin asked to alter the topic slightly to present a more specific version of that same topic: Encouraging Community Development in Themes and Plugins.) The presentation will include tips for how to encourage other members of the WordPress development community to contribute to your plugin and theme projects. Many of the lessons learned and presented on come from several years of experience with managing plugins that have very active community contributions.

How to make a living with WordPress

A look at how to make a living working with a free product like WordPress. The presentation looks at how bloggers, designers and developers can build authority, revenue and opportunities by supporting open source development.

Keeping WordPress Under [Version] Control with Git

Presented by Paul Tela.

Learn how to keep your WordPress sites under version control using a workflow refined over dozens of sites. We’ll cover repository organization, what belongs (and, perhaps more importantly, what doesn’t belong), and how to make deploying updates and working with multiple environments as painless as possible.

Please note that this presentation is not an introduction to Git nor version control. While Git experience is not mandatory it’s recommended that you have some understanding of version control going into the talk.

The State of Responsive and the “Mobile” Web

Presented by John Hartley.

New innovations and discussion seem to pop up daily and I’ll show how far responsive design has come in just the past year. More code snippets and examples, less theory, some use of CSS pre-processor SASS, and JS solutions.

Running WordPress on a USB

Presented by John Parkinson.

When I first found out about WordPress.org, I saw that you could run it locally. I installed XAMPP and WordPress on a USB and started experimenting with WP. I will still use WP on a USB to try out different themes, plugins and widgets.

You Wanna Stick That Where?

Presented by Joe Rozsa.

Many people, including clients of mine don’t understand that you can’t just upload photos and graphics of any size. This presentation will help people understand the importance of optimized images along with giving a few examples of how to size and optimize images/graphics to up load to their WP sites.

WordPress for Startups

A look at what it is about WordPress that makes it a great choice for startups to crank out their MVP.

So You Want to Sell Themes and Plugins

Presented by Dave Donaldson.

The WordPress ecosystem continues to expand, due in large part to an ever-increasing array of themes and plugins that are released on a daily basis. And while there are plenty of free options out there, many WordPress companies are doing quite well selling themes and plugins, and you’ve decided you want in on the action. But just because you can write a plugin over a weekend, do you know how to sell it? How will you market it? Will you offer support? How will you handle refund requests? Have you even thought about those things?

This session will talk about all of those things and more when it comes to selling a premium WordPress product. Come learn the mistakes and success I’ve had trying to build Max Foundry into a sustainable WordPress business and how those things can help you.

I’ll be giving a quick introduction to WordPress Multisite with a more detailed description of our install at The Ohio State University Libraries. Particular attention will be given to maintaining the install, curating plugins, and the development and use of a custom theme, which was developed from the Underscores theme.

Custom Layouts Without Using Page Templates

Presented by Chip Bennett.

Often, Themes use custom page templates to add layout options for static pages; but custom page templates are actually intended to be used for custom content, rather than for custom layouts. And by using custom page templates to define custom layouts, custom layouts are limited to static pages. Single blog posts don’t feel the love. This session will show you how to use custom post meta data and the body_class filter to define custom layouts for both static pages and single blog posts. As a bonus, this session will show you how to use custom post metaboxes, rather than forcing users to deal with custom fields.

2 thoughts on “Schedule”

The opening says that we can have a web site up and running by the end-of-day, Friday, Aug 2. Should we bring our own computers or does the Ohio Union have computers available in the meeting room? Thanks in advance…. Regards, Robert